Wednesday, October 19, 2005

International criminal court

This BBC
news story is case-in-point while the U.S. will never
join an international criminal court:

A Spanish judge has issued an international arrest order for
three US soldiers over the shelling of a Baghdad hotel that
killed a cameraman.

...US officials say the tank crew believed they were
being shot at when they opened fire, although TV footage of
the incident did not record any incoming fire.

...Following the incident, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell said a US review of the incident had found the use of force was justified.

We need allies in the world -- like Spain, Italy, and Canada.
We're not going to have allies so long as we kill their
citizens and then refuse to conduct an open, thorough
review.

I don't know whether the use of force was justified in
this case or not. A war was on -- shooting first would seem
to be the order of the day. But it's in our nation's best
interest to transparently investigate these questions.